Thursday, November 19, 2009

Does Movie Theater Popcorn Have to Be So Bad?

19/05/2007 (Day 170) - The Popcorn QueueImage by Kaptain Kobold via Flickr

Did you hear on the news this morning about all the fat in movie theater popcorn? No wonder I always feel sick after I eat it! Of course the fact that we always buy the large and get the free refill, and I always seem to eat most of it myself has absolutely nothing to do with it. Why is it that I just can't stop eating that stuff until the bucket is empty?

I'm just trying to figure out why they think they need to add all that fat. On its own, popcorn is a healthy, whole grain, low-fat snack. It's all the oil they pop it in and then the butter (or butter flavoring) that is drizzled on top. I never get added butter because that's just too greasy, but apparently the popcorn is about as bad for you even without it. The news report said that some of the theater chains tried selling air popped popcorn, but the customers didn't like it. I personally love air pop, but I know a lot of people don't, and I'm pretty sure the theater had to know that too. Of course the customers weren't going to buy it - well, except for me if I'd known.

But anyway, customers weren't buying the air popped stuff, so they went back to using lots of oil and fat. After all, they tried, right? But my question is - isn't there somewhere we can meet in the middle? Use less oil, don't cut it out altogether. And for the theaters that give free refills - if they're like the theaters we go to, free refills are only available on the largest popcorn size. So, to get our money's worth, we usually buy the large combo - a large popcorn and two large sodas. How about making 1 free refill available no matter what size you buy? If people start out with a smaller size, even if they get the refill, the end result is less popcorn. Oh, and did I say use less oil?

Luckily going to the movies is just a once in a while thing.

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